


Primeval 100 Drabbles: 451-500

by Annariel



Series: Primeval 100 Drabbles [10]
Category: Primeval, Primeval: New World
Genre: Community: primeval100, Drabble, Drabble Collection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-05-10 06:07:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 49
Words: 4,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5573721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabbles from the primeval100 challenges.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Five Gold Rings

The anomaly had opened behind a school which, fortunately, was closed for the holidays.

"Incoming!" Finn called.

A small velociraptor raced through the anomaly and skidded to an uncertain halt at the sight of the soldiers. Moments later, a larger one followed and launched into a series of loud heckling squawks.

The smaller squawked defiantly back.

"That velociraptor has a pierced nose!" Finn muttered.

Ryan squinted. The small velociraptor did indeed appear to be sporting five gold rings.

"Is it? Is it a teenage punk velociraptor?" Finn asked doubtfully.


	2. Let's Start Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 452

It took six months, but Danny eventually caught up with Patrick. Actually getting into a position to have something that passed for a sensible conversation took another few weeks. In the end, Danny had to ambush his brother and then tie him to a tree.

"Look," Danny said, "could we just start over?"

Patrick laughed until he actually cried. "Seriously Danny, what are you going to do? Forgive and forget? Then what? Take me back to your government friends and ask them to forgive and forget as well?"

Danny had no answer. The people Patrick had killed were still dead.


	3. Trackway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 453 (Picture Prompt)

"This is so completely cool!" Connor said as the therapod plodded past them through the mud.

"You wouldn't be saying that if it was hungry," Ryan said.

"No, but I mean, that's the trackway in the quarry on the other side of the anomaly. We're watching a trackway get made. This is amazing!"

"Aye, it's amazing lad. But we're going to have to erase our own tracks before we go back," Cutter said. "This particular patch of ground ends up in the fossil record."

Connor looked down at where mud was oozing around his trainers.

"Bollocks!" Ryan said, with feeling.


	4. Midnight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 454

"What are you doing here?" Connor asked. The full team were walking up the hill towards the small group at the anomaly.

"Party was dull without you," Abby said and stood on tiptoe to peck him on the cheek.

"We brought well-simmered mulled wine," Jenny said. "Shouldn't contain much alcohol."

"Aye, and a camping stove to warm it," Cutter added.

They stood around in the winter chill, clutching mulled wine and watching the anmaly. As the clock in village below started to chime midnight, it quietly winked out.

"To the last anomaly of 2015," Connor said and raised his mug.


	5. Captain Becker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 455

"The youngest captain in the army? All this tells me is that he has influential parents and the ability to kiss ass," Lester complained.

"And he's good."

"Yes but he's still kissed a lot of ass," Lester paused, looking at Lorraine's expression. "OK, what have you heard?"

"Blade put out some feelers. His troops like him. He has a reputation for standing up to Brass, but only when necessary."

Lester looked back down at the CV. Lorraine hid a smile. Lester valued people who knew when to push back and needed someone prepared to stand up to so-called higher authorities.


	6. Cookies and Cream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 456

" _These_ are not cookies," Lieutenant Lyle pronounced, frowning at the packet Leeds had handed him.

Leeds resisted showing his frustration. The lieutenant clearly resented being sent on a goodwill mission to Project Magnet.

"What are they then?" Leeds asked as Lyle opened the packet.

"Biscuits," Lyle said around chocolatey crumbs. "These are biscuits."

"So what do you call Cookies and Cream ice cream?" Leeds asked.

"No idea. It's probably a fucking abomination. But you should get me some. So I check."

Lyle grinned cheekily. Leeds smiled back, relieved. It looked like food was the way into the man's good graces.


	7. Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 457

Janet Hodges, head chef of the ARC, liked theme days. Shrove Tuesday was her favourite. She baked a stack of crepes and put out raspberries and blueberries, syrup, chocolate sauce and ice cream, sprinkles and sugar. Connor Temple scattered choclate chips everywhere, but that didn't dent her enthusiasm.

Mid-afternoon, once all the rush and excitement was over. Sir James would enterer for one classic pancake, rolled up with lemon juice and a dusting of sugar.

"Very good, Hodges!"

He would nod convivially and then go back upstairs. Janet would sigh contentedly, knowing he could now face whatever was to come.


	8. The Emergency Services

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 458

"Pam?"

"Hi, Jess. Let me guess, you want me to send a couple of ambulances to Hampstead Heath?"

"How did you know?"

"We've had three calls already, something to do with a wierd big cat."

Jess sighed loudly.

"Kevin's on it already, by the way. Half a dozen discreet coppers en route for crowd control."

"Pam?"

"I know. Need to know, hush, hush, ecetera, ecetera. I don't know what your guys do Jess, but we see the results when you don't get there. We've got our end covered. You concentrate on getting your lot in and out in one piece."


	9. Oops!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 459

Alleana pulled the threads of time together on her loom. The kisses Candaran were peppering down her neck were distracting, but she needed to finish the weave tonight. 

"Leave off, sweatheart?" Candaron whined.

"No! Senior Harrissa wants this in the morning and I need to the money," Alleana chided.

Candaron huffed and pinched her waist playfully. Alleana squeaked and one of the threads of time she held in her hand dropped.

"Oops!" Candaron said, not sounding terribly sincere.

Alleana sighed as she watched the thread unravel back towards the 21st century. "Hopefully it won't do too much harm," she said.


	10. Bird Watching

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 460

As he ran through the anomaly, Danny assessed the far side: modern era; some kind of vintage car show.

Danny ducked behind the nearest car, clutching his makeshift club. Moments later, the terror bird burst through the anomaly. As it ran past, Danny swung the club with. The creature squawked in surprise, decided the better of the adventure, turned and dashed back through the anomaly.

"I say, what are you doing here?"

A member of the nobility in full morning dress, complete with top hat, frowned at Danny from the driving seat of the Rolls.

"Bird watching, guv. Bird watching."


	11. Dancing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 461

Helen first saw Lara dancing on May morning and was captivated by the girl's free and easy movement. So Helen lingered in the 14th century. Lara was not terribly bright, but she had a wildness that attracted Helen. Helen stopped thinking bright was important. She was happy for Lara to sit and listen to her tales with wide-open eyes. 

Helen thought Lara understood the danger, but when an anomaly opened on the green, Lara tossed her hair with a delighted laugh and danced, light-footed, through as it closed. 

Helen never quite managed to forget the image of Lara dancing away.


	12. A&E

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 462

"Hi Connor! It's Abby. Don't panic but I'm in A&E."

Abby winced at the strangled squawk, followed by rapid footsteps and then several loud thumps.

"Connor?"

"Got a bit tangled in me trousers."

Abby considered following up with a how or why, then decided discretion was the better part of valour.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. Some idiot skateboarded into me and knocked me flat. Can you pick me up, though? They don't want me driving for 24 hours."

There was a long silence, then a plaintive voice said. "I fell down the stairs. I think I might need A&E meself."


	13. Smoke and Mirrors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 464

Lester felt he owed the former Minister a drink. He considered him at least 70% incompetent. However, in the last 24 hours, the man had delivered a textbook political assassination.

"You've given my reputation a boost," Lester remarked over a particularly expensive brandy. He'd already taken several placatory calls from extremely influential people.

The ex-Minister peered morosely into his glass. "I said I resigned over welfare. The public think I resigned over Europe."

"The treasury will think twice about trying to slash the ARC budget again, so thank you," Lester said.

"I owe you my life. It's not been forgotten."


	14. Backlog

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 464

Lester's inbox had been pinging persistently for several minutes. When he looked, he had ten emails from Cutter. The system pinged again and an eleventh appeared.

Lester opened the first with trepidation. By the seventh, he was confused. All contained random questions and demands. Questions and demands Lester clearly recalled resolving with other members of the scientific team over the previous few months. The eighth email was a reply to an old message from Lester. 

Then Lester recalled that Cutter was in bed with 'flu. He wondered if the man would get better before or after he reached inbox zero.


	15. Knots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 465

Twenty-three days had been crossed off the calendar. Emily gently pushed a mug of coffee under Connor's nose. He glanced up with bleary eyes. Scrawled notes covered every surface.

Emily was tempted to say that Abby had survived pre-history before, but suspected others had already done so. 

"A knotty problem," she remarked instead, looking at his diagrams.

"What?"

"A knotty problem; it's an expression."

He thumped his forehead. "Of course! Knots!"

"Knots?"

"The anomalies must form knots in R4."

"Oh?" Emily hazarded faintly.

Connor muttered something about "knot invariants", then he grinned manically. "I know how that map was constructed!"


	16. Binge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 466

Both cars had been totalled by the Anklyosaurus. The tired and hungry team squelched disconsolately through the mud and rain towards the nearby village. It looked dark and unfriendly.

"I'm sorry guys. The only thing open is a convenience store. Transport won't get to you for four hours," Jess said.

Then they rounded a bend to see a welcoming light and a gaudy sign.

_Opening Night! All You Can Eat Buffet_

"Yes! There is justice in the universe!" Connor shouted punching the air.

"So it seems," Abby agreed, "but let's try not to bankrupt them on their first evening, yeah?"


	17. This Isn't Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 467

"That's it over, is it?" asked Giles Fortesque as the last arc transport pulled out of his elegant driveway. The triceratops in the back bellowed beligerently.

"Yes, sir, thank you for your cooperation." 

Becker headed wearily for his car, rubbing a bruised elbow. His knee was sore where it had been smashed by an anklyosaurus five years back. 

It might have been over for Giles Fortesque but it wasn't over for the team. It probably wouldn't ever be over. Becker regarded his grey hair in the car mirror, but some day soon it would have to carry on without him.


	18. Fall From Grace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 468

Helen grimaced at the email listing her teaching load. The next email, some idiot wittering on about aliens, was worse.

Helen had first come across the fossil anomalies during her PhD, but her supervisor had refused to allow publication. On graduation she returned to the research line however, working down the publication food chain until a minor journal published it.

And then the trouble started: colleagues embarrassed to have a crackpot in the department. Even Nick's anxiety about being tarred with the same brush was all too apparent.

One day, she promised herself. One day she would show them all.


	19. In the Name of Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 469

"Why die I agree to this?" Jenny complained. A heel caught in something and she staggered.

Danny managed to keep his hands over her eyes, while steadying her. "Not much further."

"I'm a little old to sneak around parks at night," Jenny grumbled as he led her on.

"Now!" Danny said. His hands came away.

The electronic billboard across from the park was brightly lit up. "Jennifer Lewis, will you marry me?"

"You got Connor to hack the advertising," Jenny said.

"I got Connor to hack the advertising," Danny agreed, thrusting a champagne flute into her hand. "So, will you?"


	20. Spring Cleaning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 470

Grace had the windows wide open, letting in the brisk March air as she worked. She had just finished scrubbing the last of the coal dust from the parlour walls when she heard an unearthly screeching sound. She turned to see a strange creature perched on the window. It looked like a large bird with vicious looking teeth and large claws. 

It swung its tail and her best china shepherdess went flying.

Grace wasn't going to stand for vandalism like that. She seized the coal shovel and swung it firmly at the creature's head. It fell, stunned, to the floor.


	21. The Thrill of the Chase

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 471

"My uncle taught me to shoot," Emily admitted down the pub one evening. "He was a big game hunter. You'd have been horrified, Abby. His house was full of stuffed animals but I don't think he cared about trophies. He liked the thrill of the chase."

Matt winced.

"What is it?" Emily asked.

"My uncle used to say that too."

"He was a hunter?" she asked, surprised.

Matt shook his head. "He used to lead predators away from the settlement. He was one of the best, probably because he actually enjoyed it. Of course, one day he didn't come back."


	22. Camouflage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 472

Becker stared at Jess's outfit. "We're supposed to be inconspicuous."

"At ComicCon," she retorted. "I look more inconspicuous than you."

"What are you even dressed as?"

"Steampunk gender-swapped what if Han Solo and Indiana Jones really were the same person whereas you're wearing a tie."

Becker glanced down at his tie. "It has dinosaurs on it."

"That will not help make you inconspicuous."

Lester sighed. "Jess, you will be a photographer magnet. Becker looks like someone who hunts dinosaurs for a living trying to be quirky. Tell Connor to put on his second best Star Wars T-Shirt and send him."


	23. The Early Bird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 473

The creature leaped onto the bonnet of a white van. From there is scrambled onto the top of a portakabin and thence up a fire escape and onto the roof a half-built house. It wavered on the edge of the guttering. Connor held his breath.

The creature half jumped, half fell, off the building, spread its wings and went into a long glide across the road. Connor couldn't help applauding.

"Why so excited?" Emily asked.

"Archeopterix could fly! The first bird could fly! Well, OK, it was more falling with style, but I love it when these questions get answered."


	24. Australia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 474

One side-effect of Convergence was that dozens of national anomaly teams came out of the woodwork. A second side-effect was widespread television coverage of their exploits.

Jess found the team in the rec room watching television. Someone had made popcorn.

"What's happening?" 

"Wintonotitan," Connor said. "They've been trying to lure it back through the anomaly for three hours now."

"Any success?"

"Three crushed cars, some kind of tow truck and a toilet block: the dinosaur is scoring well. Current repatriation plan involves a helicopter and a net full of Eucalyptus leaves."

Jess boggled. "Budge up! This I have to see."


	25. Drunk and Disorderly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 475

"This seems like a lot of damage, even for a Mammoth," Lester commented, looking up from the report.

Matt's expression was unreadable, as ever. "It was a brewery, sir. I've attached reports of damage caused by drunken elephants for comparison." 

Lester narrowed his eyes. Behind Matt, Abby and Connor looked to be on tenterhooks. Lester flicked to the section on elephants and raised his eyebrows.

"Well, I suppose we must consider ourselves lucky. However, I'm certainly not giving permission for Monty to be repatriated to a herd of drunken hooligans."

He pretended not to see Connor and Abby high five.


	26. Cold Bloo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 476

April suppressed a shudder of mingled annoyance and distaste. Maitland was in the lab with Connor, her ridiculous pet lizard in her arms.

Fixing her face into a smile, after all she wanted to seem enthusiastic and eager to please, April entered. 

"Rex is so cute," she said. "But do you really think this is an appropriate place for him?"

Rex hissed and Maitland's relaxed manner faltered. "Probably not. I'll take him back to the menagerie."

"That was nice," April said, as Maitland left. She was glad he was too oblivious to notice her distaste for the vile cold-blooded creature.


	27. 24 Hours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 477

The first four hours were quiet. It was a sunny day. The people in the park took selfies with the anomaly and chatted as the ARC team set up a perimeter and sealed it.

Hour five: All the EMDs ceased to function and the anomaly re-opened. An EMP will do that.

Hour six: Appearance of first predator.

The next ten hours involved a fighting retreat and an ever widening evacuation zone. 

Hour twenty: City in flames.

Hour twenty-one: Dull. Everyone in the immediate area dead.

Hour twenty-two: Likewise.

Hour twenty-three: Likewise.

Hour twenty-four: Helen said, "Recall your pets. Playtime's over."


	28. Rain (III)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 478

Connor was staring at the rain streaming down the window when Becker slipped his arms around him.

"You like watching the rain," Becker commented.

Connor shrugged slightly. "Yeah, it reminds me of sadness, but it's good too."

Becker chuckled fondly. "That makes no sense, you know."

"I know, but you love me anyway." 

Connor didn't say that it made him remember, but that now those memories were fond and treasured. It was possible Becker understood anyway. He squeezed gently and rested his chin on Connor's shoulder.

Somewhere the faintest flicker of a ghost watched back, sharing the mixture of emotions.


	29. Frirst

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 479

"Welcome Prime Minister. First day in your job as the proverbial First Among Equals."

The new Prime Minister pursed her lips ever-so-slightly but refrained from comment. "Do we have a briefings schedule?" she asked.

"Yes, Prime Minister. Joint Intelligence Committee at ten, followed by individual briefings from MI6, MI5, GCHQ and then the Anomaly Research Centre."

"That's James Lester's animal rehoming unit isn't it? I wondered who he had annoyed to get shuffled off there. I assume I am now to learn that there is considerably more to this ARC of his than meets they eye."

"Very perspicacious, Prime Minister."


	30. Ghost Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 480

"Is that a light out there?" James asked, just as Thomas was setting food on the table.

"In this weather?" Donald asked doubtfully.

James rubbed at the condensation on the lighthouse window. "There's definitely something. It's flickering."

Thomas sighed. "We had best check. Mayhap someone's got caught in the storm."

Donald shrugged and pulled open the lighthouse door. A gust of wind entered, and a chair banged to the floor, caught in an eddy.

The three men left the lighthouse. Their meal remained, set out on the table and at the table head a chair lay tumbled on the floor.


	31. Haunted Swimming Pool

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 481 (Picture Prompt)

vJenny frowned at the clipping on her desk. It was an advert from a local newspaper. `Spend a night at our Haunted Swimming Pool' screamed the headline.

She waved it at Lorraine. "Should this mean something to me?"

Lorraine grimaced. "Before your time. A Moasaur ate a diver."

"Under new management by the looks of things. It's pretty tasteless, leveraging publicity off a death, even if you don't know the details of what actually happened."

"What will you do?"

"The local council will find it tasteless too. I'll alert them. They can squish whatever slimy little roach is behind this."


	32. The Village

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 482

Matt wasn't particularly well versed in the nuances of 21st century culture, but something about the village made his team nervous. Becker remarked on local shops for local people while Connor talked about Number 6 and Midwich.

When Matt stumbled across the armoury of electro muscular disruption weapons everything fell into place; from the deep scratches on the Church walls, to the fifty year clusters of deaths in the parish register. Generations of refugees had been escaping from his time to this.

"When does the anomaly next open?" he asked the Vicar. 

"You don't have to stand alone," Emily added.


	33. Recovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 483

Stephen's departure from the ARC for a job at the WWF was orderly. He gave three months' notice, was polite at the party and shook Cutter's hand before he walked out of the door

"He was so quiet. I never felt I got to know him," Emily said the next day as the team herded several excitable eophippus' back through an anomaly.

"He was always quiet, but after the cage room he was quieter," Connor said.

"You see it in animals sometimes," Abby said. "They heal, but they don't recover, not really. Hopefully a new start is what he needed."


	34. Troll

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 484

"Are you the troll who lives under the bridge?"

Connor looked up from where he was standing on the dry stream bed. A small girl gazed down at him seriously from the railing above.

"Err... possibly?"

"You don't look much like the troll," she said. "The troll is supposed to have scales."

"To be honest, I'm hunting the troll."

She narrowed her eyes. "You don't look much like a troll hunter either."

"My mate Abby does the actual hunting. Becker and Danny catch them. I tell them what kind of troll it is."

"Ah," she said, "you're a troll expert."


	35. On the Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 485

Patrick's first memory was of running down the street, John Mason hot on his heels shouting about his broken window. Patrick never did get that football back and his pocket money was docked.

He's been on the run ever since: first from monsters; then the Tsarists; then the ARC forces; and now he has Danny on his heels pursuing him from anomaly to anomaly.

Every time he's ever stopped, something terrible has happened. Starting with that early loss of pocket money, through to Charlotte's death.

So he keeps running, aware only of the pursuit behind and that stopping is unthinkable.


	36. Pterandon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 486

Light feet running on parquet sounded thought the empty Museum dinosaur gallery. A small girl burst through the anomaly that spun underneath the Pteranodon skeleton and collided with Nick.

"Right! Back the way you came," Nick said.

He was rewarded with a rebellious look.

"Claudia Brown where are you?" 

"Claudia Brown, eh? Do you see that skeleton up there?" Nick asked.

She nodded.

"That's a Pterandon and you should remember that the head can keep moving, even when it's unconscious."

Claudia Brown tossed her head in childish contempt at an adult being patronising and then marched back through the anomaly.


	37. How the Other Half Live

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 487

A lone child had wandered through the anomaly. She was about five in a short floral home-made dress that was fraying at the hem.

Kermit scooped her up and, after a quick glance at Ryan for approval, carried her back with Lyle at his shoulder.

"Dear God!" 

The anomaly was in a tiny room that contained a double-bed, a cot, a primitive Baby Belling and a sink over-flowing with laundry. It smelled of damp and the wallpaper was peeling, revealing cracks in the plaster beneath.

"Nothing you can do mate," Lyle said. "Even our money will be the wrong currency."


	38. It's Alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 488

The Saltopus, had led the team a merry dance around the warehouse. It slipped nimbly through small gaps and under shelves. They had just managed to corner it when a door opened and a man entered carrying a mop and bucket. 

The Saltopus darted forwards. He gave a suprisingly high-pitched squeak and swung the mop. It caught the small creature which went spinning across the floor.

Abby cried out, and it was a testament to her that the unfortunate cleaner found several EMDs levelled at him. Abby darted to the creature's side.

"It's OK," she said with relief. "It's alive."


	39. That's What Friends are For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 489

Stephen was a little over-whelmed. People had visited him in hospital, of course. Cutter mostly to apologise and wring his hands. The others, presumably because that was what you did when someone was in hospital.

However Stephen was home now. He didn't quite understand why people continued to appear carrying groceries (Jenny), DVDs and games (Connor), conservation magazines (Abby), and draft papers (Cutter). In the end he asked the new girl, Sarah, who had been dragged along a couple of times and presumably could lend an outsider's perspective.

She gave him a withering look and said, "They _are_ your friends!"


	40. Myths and Monsters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 490

In the wild, wild wood,  
In the dark, dark night,  
The fairies shine a bright, bright light.

But watch your step and take great care,  
For monsters wander thither and there.

Keep your feet on the path.  
Keep your wits in your head.  
For many a traveller has wound up dead.

And many have vanished under hill and stone,  
Since they wandered into that light alone.

Beware of the fairies.  
Beware of the light.  
Beware of the monsters that lurk in the night.

This message placed on the stone by the gate,  
Should warn good men to avoid my fate.


	41. In the Wood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 491

"Is this path too convenient?" Matt asked.

The winding path had lead them around a gentle hill and was now set to plunge into a deceptively picturesque wood. Matt had no real magical ability, but he'd been working with anomalies long enough to be suspicious of something so picture perfect. 

Emily tapped the path with her foot thoughtfully and muttered under her breath.

"Well?" Matt asked.

"It is enchanted, but it leads where we need to go," she said.

"Into the woods?" he asked and he could feel magic heavy in the phrase.

Emily nodded her head. "Into the woods."


	42. Autumn Colours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 492

When Jennifer Lewis was sixteen, Max Winterson dumped her a week before the school dance. Jenny spent three days weeping in her pastel coloured bedroom while watching Steel Magnolias. Then she gave herself a stern talking to, dumped her make-up collection, took back her pale pink ballgown and went to the hairdresser.

When she walked, alone, into the school hall she was wearing a short golden mini-dress, her lips and heels glinted red and red-brown curls fell from an elaborate up-do. Her eyes dared anyone to comment on the transformation. The theme of the dance, after all, was autumn colours.


	43. Cancelled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 493

The occupant of the stretcher was in a body bag. Nick's expression was devastated as he followed the soldiers. 

Jenny's phone rang.

"Jenny Lewis." 

"Do you realise how much trouble I'm having cancelling everything?" It was her no longer prospective mother-in-law.

Connor buried his face in Abby's hair, clinging onto her.

"What?"

"I expect you to handle the caterers and that wedding planner."

Jenny's phone was plucked from her hand.

"Miss Lewis has had some bad news and will contact you later... 

"I neither know nor care about your son. Goodbye!"

Lester switched off the phone. Jenny's tears started falling.


	44. Arachnaphobia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 494

The anomaly hung in the nave of the little Church of St. Jerome. Ryan had authorised Stephen and Lyle to make a rapid sortie through it to assess the threat while the rest of the team spread out and started searching.

"Well?" he asked when the two men returned.

"Carboniferous," Stephen said.

"Great, giant bugs again."

At that moment Connor's voice floated down from the organ loft. "I've found a Megarachne!"

Ryan suppressed a shudder. The name told him everything he really didn't want to hear. 

Stephen caught his eye. "Don't worry, it's not actually a spider. It was mis-classified."


	45. Tell me the Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 495

_Does it look like a pair of pyjamas,_

Lyle gave Lester a pair of monogrammed silk pyjamas for Christmas one year. Lester even wore them once.

_Is its singing at parties a riot?_

Connor's enthusiasm for Karaoke was matched only by his lack of ability. Still, Abby didn't complain about his rendition of _I Just Called to Say I Love You_.

_When it comes, will it come without warning_

Claudia looked up from her work one day to find Ryan was handing in his report on time.

_Will it alter my life altogether? O tell me the truth about love._


	46. Remember, Remember the Fifth of November

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 496

Jenny rubbed her gloved hands together. The night had a frosty air, though clear skies meant the fireworks wouldn't get rained off. 

"Have some mulled wine!"

Jenny gratefully took a steaming mug from Nick and sipped the spicy drink.

"When Nick was just five," his mother said. "He drank all the mulled wine and promptly fell asleep before even the first banger went up."

"Remember, remember," Nick muttered. "She's always telling that story though I don't know why she wants to advertise such bad parenting."

Mrs Cutter chuckled fondly and nudged Jenny's elbow. "He seems to have turned out alright."


	47. Under Investigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 497

Lester's email was terse. The communal biscuit tin had been raided and left empty three days in a row. There would be an investigation.

Lyle started a book. 

At lunch time Connor was heard to shout "it wasn't me!" when someone placed a hand on his shoulder.

Battle lines were drawn between the soldiers (who suspected the scientists), the scientists (who suspected the admin staff) and the admin staff (who suspected the soldiers).

The following morning, thanks to Blade's provision of motion sensors and cameras, the culprit was revealed. The kitten was instantly named Catosaurus and adopted by the soldiers.


	48. Fish and Chips

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 498

The weather was truly horrendous; a driving, cold, wind complete with heavy rain. At least any creatures apparently disliked it as much as the ARC team and sensibly stayed in the warm sunny climate reported to exist on the other side of the anomaly.

Jenny huddled with Abby and Stephen under a bus shelter. It was getting dark.

Suddenly, Cutter and Connor loomed out of the gloom. Jenny had been wondering where they were.

"Fish and Chips!" Cutter shouted, handing out warm, newspaper bundles.

Sometimes, Jenny thought, peeling up a soggy chip with chilly fingers, Nick Cutter wasn't so bad.


	49. Neighbourhood Watch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt 499

Jess watched as the anomaly detector zeroed in on the Forest of Dean.

"That one's been quiet for a bit," Lester said.

"I know, Sir. The local team were withdrawn last month."

"Typical," Lester muttered. "How long will it take us to get a new team there?"

"About three hours." 

"Plenty of time for mayhem then," Lester said gloomily.

Jess smiled as she rang one of her contacts. "Don't worry Sir, the locals are pretty used to it. Oh, hello! Arthur, it's Jess Parker from the ARC. I'm afraid we're going to need the help of your Neighbourhood Watch again."


End file.
